Mumsnet Talk re-platforming - Known issues update

[JustineMumsnet]

Hi all,
As you probably know we re-plaftormed the site overnight on Tuesday (in order to move to a faster, more stable and secure site which would be easier to develop new features on). There are a number of issues and bugs as a result of the move that we are working through and we thought it would be a good idea to list them on a page which we can keep updated as we sort through the problems. You can find that page here.

Mumsnet is a very large, complicated and old site - we've been working on re-platforming for the best part of 3 years - so it's not a huge surprise there are some bugs but please be assured we are working our way through them will get to them all as soon as we possibly can. In the meantime I do apologise for any inconvenience and frustration - I know it's been a painful day and a half for some.

Thank you to all those who've fed back and are helping us solve the remaining issues - it's really much appreciated .

One other thing which has probably been mentioned, we can no longer edit posts when the preview is showing.

Clicked on this thread twice and got this both times. Android Samsung Internet on Galaxy phone.

Also, pictures on threads are still tiny surrounded by white space with a second even smaller image at the bottom. Text size is still annoying and I have to resize the whole site every time I open a page or it doesn't fit on my screen. I don't bother with notifications or emails now because that's still a mess.

Why is the site still so bad after so long? Why are you consistently surprised by the repeated complaints?

@DragonwithoutaDungeon We're in the process of making the search function better - results will be relevant and more like the site prior to transformation. It's a big job but do bear with us - it's very high on the list!

@Justthisonceharold What device and browser are you using? I'm on chrome via laptop and the edit button works for me. We'll try and replicate once we have more information!

@JaggedLittleKrill We're really sorry about this! Can we ask for a link to the thread you were on and can you let us know what device and browser you're using to access the site? In the meantime, we'll still be looking into it to see if we can replicate.

Hi @JaggedLittleKrill we had an issue with our servers this morning but it was resolved right away. You shouldn't see that error/black box going forward.

What about the go to page function? It isn't the first time I've mentioned this issue btw. Tbh if it were me I'd have an actual list of issues, it feels like you guys don't. People have to repeat themselves, and repeat and repeat instead.

TBH I no longer care, I got the PMs I was worried about and I am not using the site as much anymore.

Saying that...

What I'm most concerned about, is the issues of a more data breachy nature. I've read in some threads recently that people have said that they are getting emails from MN sent to old addresses that MN should no longer have. Stuff like that.

Why is MN not looking after our collective data/info properly? Why have you held onto personal information that your users have asked you to remove?

The whole data breach a while back, then the report button sending the reporter the reportee's email addresses (I for one do not believe you that only 20 people were affected btw!) , now reports of this too?

What on earth is going on? It's really worrying.

re the keeping track of long threads, I don’t get any notifications apart from PMs. So it’s always from TIO which I check daily. I have managed to get into the habit of bookmarking fairly diligently now but I never used to have to use bookmarks in TIO before and if I forget it takes me back to my last bookmark which can be several pages back (by touching the thread title) which is why I only used to use bookmarks on threads I was following rather than posting on.

in TIO I can see the last three posts on the screen (mobile on Safari) but before I used to touch the poster’s name to open at that post, now you have to touch the arrows which is irritating, also they have changed direction so the newest one is at the top not the bottom, this seems illogical when the posts themselves are the other way round.

The autoformatting of lists thing is annoying too, if you want to number a line it resets it to 1. unless you remember to use punctuation other than a fullstop. Why can’t you just let us do our own formatting? It’s annoying in threads of lists where you are adding something to previous posts.

So in the line above I typed 2. (2 fullstop space). In the line below I typed 2- (2 hyphen space.

2-

I covered this in my post but appreciate you'll have a lot to keep track of.

This thread.

Samsung internet on an Android galaxy phone.

Happens every few days.

Yes sorry - a lot going on!

This was an issue with our server. If it does happen again (it shouldn't) then it will be resolved very quickly.

I'm on an S10 using Chrome. I can edit, but not when looking at the preview, unlike previously.

Ah okay - it's the edit button now that takes you back to the post to edit it. We know, it's a lot of changes! We'll probably be keeping this as it is for the moment.

It's concerning to me that you gloss over posts about data breaching. It doesn't fill me with confidence about how you run things.

Why is Mumsnet holding data for it's users that they have requested you remove?

Hello, everyone.

We think we've answered most of the questions about the data breach now. If there is anything else we've missed, do let us know.

With regards to the questions about users occasionally receiving emails to old addresses, as we've said, this definitely shouldn't be the case. When you deregister your account, your email address is automatically deleted. The same happens when you change your email address; the old one disappears for good.

If that's not the case for you, please email us at [email protected] and we'll look into it for you.

On the information that's in the email users get when we reply to a report - we are currently reviewing the report forms to check that there is nothing unnecessary in there.

But people have been reporting to you in other threads that they are getting emails to old email addresses you shouldn't have. It is happening apparently.

So why has it happened at all? It shouldn't be possible right?

Why did the more recent data breach occur? I've not seen anything where you've explained how it happened or what you'll be doing to counter it. You seemed a little reserved about reporting yourself until prompted too.

It all sounds pretty worrying from this side of the screen frankly. Your responses to people relating their issues in regard to this or to those asking questions has made me feel MN is covering their collective butts and not telling their users the whole truth tbh.

When you deregister your account, your email address is automatically deleted. The same happens when you change your email address; the old one disappears for good.
Why aren't you listening to the posters telling you this is not always how it works?
What a pile of patronising tosh, to announce "This is what happens, guys!" in the face of multiple end users telling you different.

Exactly, it feels gaslight-y and like MNHQ are saying we'll ignore you or repeat this until you stop bugging us and go away

Odd one. I've had a couple of email notifications that there have been new posts on the "Captain Tom Foundation spent more on costs than causes" thread, but clicking on the link gives a 500 error. Similarly, searching for Captain Tom shows the thread in the list of results but clicking on it gives a 500 error. The url shows that the thread should be in "In the News" but it doesn't appear to be on that board at all.

Hi - sorry - we never intend to come across as patronising and we really regret that it sounds that way. We're keen to figure out why some users are receiving emails to old addresses, as @LilyMumsnet said, this should not be happening based on how our system is set up. If you have concerns, please get in touch at the usual address: [email protected] with info on what you're receiving. We'll be able to give you a clear answer from there.

It's also still the case that we're more than happy to manually remove any email from our lists - so please do let us know if that's the case for you.

Did you mean that to be amusing, coz you've just pretty much rinse repeated what was said above

It is happenening... but why?!

Can someone answer my questions please rather than repeating this silly stock response?

Why is that happening?
Isn't that supposed to be impossible?
What are MNHQ doing about this (holding info users have requested you remove) - do you need to report yourself again?

How did the recent data breach occur? I haven't seen a satisfactory explanation yet but I may have missed it. I know roughly how it occurred but according to the PP's who know about this stuff, it shouldn't have happened and it's worrying that it did.

What are you doing to properly protect your users and their information please MN? For all I know you've got another dodgy Intern, collecting info about folk - we know it's happened before... how about some reassurance?

If you have concerns, please get in touch at the usual address: [email protected] with info on what you're receiving. We'll be able to give you a clear answer from there.
For the love of all that's holy; just give a clear answer here

Maybe the answer is still "we don't know"?

It’s pretty obvious that they don’t know though isn’t it? It’s very difficult to recreate issues that could be due to many many reasons. Much easier for MNHQ to have a decent example from someone saying “I changed email address from XYZ to ABC on date but still getting old emails” so then MNHQ can investigate further and see patterns / offer an explanation

Somebody up thread gave a really good explanation as to why the data breach (the reporting incident) shouldn't have happened, apparently it's standard to have a 3 stage fail safe that shouldn't be able to be bypassed easily by human error.

I'd like to know why those three stages weren't put in place, why it was so easy for sensitive info to be leaked.

I'd also like to be convinced they have fixed it, put the necessary fail safe measures in place now and that this sort of data breach won't happen again.

• I don't actually believe there were only 20 people affected and MNHQ's responses to all of this makes me feel suspicious of them in a way I never was before. It all smacks of furious arse coverage behind the scenes while they prevent any info leaking out which would (in my mind) let everyone know that actually the problem is far worse than we thought - and we already think it's pretty bad. Now I'm fully aware that I could be wrong, I have slowly come to feel like this and am not one to whip out the suspicion at short notice normally.

People have been letting MNHQ know that their old email addresses are still receiving notifications. It hasn't happened to me, but I've seen posts about it elsewhere in the site.

MNHQ seem to be wanting to brush this under the carpet too which is really concerning to me as well.

Why can't they give straight answers here? Why are they saying "well it shouldn't happen so that's that sorted" basically? Why are they ignoring (seemingly) multiple posters telling them it's happening and the subsequent posters who are wondering WTH is going on.

Is our information actually safe with MN these days? I'm not sure.

I agree with you re the site issues though. But that's been a whole other crap show really hasn't it?

It just doesn't feel like the smooth, professional machine that MN should be. The data breach stuff is really worrying to me though. Look what happened with the Intern a while back.

This is a very long thread now so this may have been mentioned, but when I added a picture on the old system (on my Android laptop, Chrome browser) I could drag and drop into the Add your message here box. Now I can't.

Am I going mad, or has the font used on the site just changed? I returned to a thread after a few minutes on another web page, and the look of the text is completely different - I’m squinting and getting a very bad headache! I’ve checked other boards/threads and it all seems to be changed to a different font. Maybe I just need sleep or to get off Mumsnet…